This invention relates to registers for forced air systems.
Forced air heating and cooling systems provide an economical and quick reaction to desired temperature changes in a structure. Forced air systems are used in winter for heating by blowing air around a fire box, which may be fueled by gas, oil or coal, or around an electrical or fluid heat source, and then blowing the air through a register and through sealed ducts along floors and wall, and then finally releasing the air through registers, which are wall, floor or ceiling mounted. The air is drawn into the system through large intakes, is collected through intake ducts, and is again blown around the heat source or sealed fire box to heat the air. In summer, often the same forced air system is used. A heat exchanger is imposed across the major duct, and a refrigeration system outside of the structure draws fluid from the heat exchanger, compresses the fluid, cools the compressed fluid and returns the fluid to the heat exchanger for expansion and cooling the heat exchanger. The forced air is circulated over, around and through the heat exchanger, is cooled, and is circulated through the ducts and branch ducts, out of the registers and through the structure before it is returned to the heat exchanger.
Heat pumps use forced air systems. An outside refrigeration unit flows either hot fluid or compressed and cooled fluid to a heat exchanger in a main interior unit. A blower drives air through room return intakes and through intake ducts, and blows the air through the heat exchanger and the ducting system and branch ducts, and releases the air through the wall, ceiling and floor mounted registers or any of those registers.
When designing structures and forced air systems for the structures, much attention is given to the size and straightness of the main duct and to the size of the branch ducts, and to positioning of registers within rooms. The positioning of registers in rooms is made more difficult by dual-purpose heating and air conditioning systems. Registers for heating are best positioned near a floor, and registers for cooling are best positioned near a ceiling. Heated air tends to flow upward and cool air tends to flow downward.
Standard registers are about 3 inches by 10 inches, or 4 inches by 10 inches, according to the size of the room and available space for installation.
Modifications are often made in air handling ducts to provide the best circulation of air with the most appropriate placement of the furnace, heat exchanger or blower. While a central location in a basement might be most desirable, for example, that location may be avoided for purposes of maintaining available open space.
The ducting system may or may not be modified to accommodate for the offset heating, cooling and blowing equipment. Very large structures often have more than one separate heating and air conditioning system so that temperatures in zones may be regulated. Design constraints may change heating and cooling of differentiated areas within the zones.
During the use of structures, heating and cooling characteristics differing from the designed and actual characteristics of the system might be desired. Changing the system is often difficult or impossible.
In some structures, it may be desirable to conserve energy by limiting the heating or cooling of the forced air system to those areas which are actually in use.
It may be desirable to keep areas such as bedrooms cooler than bathrooms, kitchen, family room and living room areas.
Registers are often provided with louvers for adjusting and directing the air flows. The louvers may also be used for closing or partially closing the register. While the louvers may be effective in partially closing the register, they are primarily intended for directing air at angles from the register, and usually they do not completely seal the register.
If it becomes necessary to seal a register a person often resorts to cardboard taped to the register, which is unsightly and leaves an unsightly residue which attracts and holds dirt on the face of the register. Other alternatives are removing the register, placing a cardboard cutout inside the register, and replacing the register on the wall. That is a time consuming solution which requires the use of tools. Neither of those solutions facilitates periodic daily sealing and opening which may be desirable.
Particularly in the heating season, a high relative humidity is desirable in the interior of structures. Use of forced air heating tends to reduce humidity. Special systems restore humidity, but careful monitoring of those systems is required to make sure that those systems do not introduce health hazards into the air. A better solution is to reduce the on-time of the heater while keeping the temperature of living spaces in a comfort range. That may be best accomplished by sealing registers in non-used spaces during periods of non-use.